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voiceless

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

9 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "voiceless", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "voiceless" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "voiceless" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

voiceless is anEnglishadj. It means: Lacking a voice, without vocal sound. Pronounced /ˈvɔɪsləs/.

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Key facts for voiceless
PropertyValue
Headwordvoiceless
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdj
IPA/ˈvɔɪsləs/
Letters9
Frequency rank#39,156
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of voiceless in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for voiceless is 9 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈvɔɪsləs/. Corpus data places it at rank #39,156 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for voiceless, with forms such as "oviceless", "vioceless", and "vocieless". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From voice + -less. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is voiceless, spelled V-O-I-C-E-L-E-S-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Lacking a voice, without vocal sound.
  2. 2
    Without a vote; having no input into a decision.
  3. 3
    Spoken without vibration of the vocal cords; unvoiced, surd, breathed. Examples: [t], [s], [f], [m̥], [u̥].

Etymology

From voice + -less.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: oviceless,vioceless,vocieless,voicceless,voiceelss,voiceles,voicelless,voicelses,voicleess,voiecless,vvoiceless

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for voiceless

Misspelling Variants of "voiceless"

oviceless9vioceless9vocieless9voicceless10voiceelss9voiceles8voicelless10voicelses9
Misspelling Variants of "voiceless"

Frequency rank: #39,156 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "voiceless"?
"voiceless" is spelled V-O-I-C-E-L-E-S-S. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈvɔɪsləs/.
What does "voiceless" mean?
As an adj, "voiceless" means: Lacking a voice, without vocal sound.
What are common misspellings of "voiceless"?
Common misspellings include "oviceless", "vioceless", "vocieless", "voicceless", "voiceelss". The correct spelling is "voiceless".
How do you pronounce "voiceless"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "voiceless" is /ˈvɔɪsləs/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "voiceless"?
From voice + -less. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter V in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.